Creating a Lip Sync and Using the X-Sheet in Dragonframe

Transcription

1 Creating a Lip Sync and Using the X-Sheet in Dragonframe Contents A. Creating a Lip Sync in Dragonframe B. Loading the X-Sheet in Dragon Frame C. Setting Notes and Flag/Reminders in the X-Sheet

2 1. Trackreading/Breaking Down Audio 1. Open Audio Edit Interface: Go to the top menu Window/Audio to open the audio edit interface. Then click the audio option button in the top right hand corner of the Dragonframe program. 2. Import Audio Track: There's a drop-down bar on the left hand side of the screen beneath the screening box. Click on 'Import Audio'. Browse to select audio track answer yes when it asks you to Clip audio to X-sheet?

3 3. Add a Character: In the same drop-down box that you imported audio from, click the very first option 'Add Character'. Name character and click enter. You can add as many characters as you need for your piece. 4. Transcribe Audio to Dialogue Track: Transcribe the dialogue into the text box located between the sound track and the Character strip. Note the dialogue bubble icon to the right. Scrub the cursor slowly to listen to the sounds. Double Click on the frame at the beginning of each word to enter the dialogue.

4 5. Trackreading/Phonetically Breakdown Audio: Just below the Dialogue Track is the Phonetics Track where you will enter the phonetic breakdown of the syllables as they appear in the soundtrack. Pay special attention to the vowels sounds and the B, P and M consonants. Enter sounds where you hear them. They can be a frame or two early but never late. 6. Load Face Set: Load face set by using the dropdown menu at the left of the soundtrack and click load face set. Browse to the resources folder in the Dragonframe application folder and choose Dr Sock. In most cases you will need to use other face sets based on different phonems or create your own face set/phoneme set in Photoshop. These can be loaded in through Import Face Set in the dropdown menu. Check for Face Set options in the folder. 7. Sync Mouth Positions/Phonemes: Scroll through the sound file and assign the lip position that best suits your audio. Try to nail your consonants first and drop in your vowel sounds later. Avoid making changes on 1 s (your mouth simply doesn t move that fast) and remember that you are working phonetically. If you can't seem to find a lip movement that fits perfectly an approximation will usually due. Scrub the soundtrack often to see if your character looks like he is actually speaking the words in your soundtrack. 8. Add Blinks: Blinks are usually placed between sentences to denote thought. Now would be a good time to watch your reference video. 9. Export Playblast: Go to the Dropdown menu on the left and select Export Preview... to create a playblast of your lip-sync sequence.

5 Make sure your video is set to 24 fps and the quality is set to 'best'. Then hit Export Preview. You now have a video of a proper basic lip-sync you can use to create the moth movements of your character(s) for your animation. The Playblast movie will look like this...

6 B. Loading the X-Sheet in Dragon Frame 1. Open the X-Sheet Window: Select the Animation interface and then go to the toolbar in the lower right of the screen and select the X-Sheet icon. An X-Sheet will open in the right of the screen. 2. Add New Columns: Click on the Add Column icon just below the X-Sheet icon and select Add Character 1 Phonetics. Repeat to add Character 1 Mouth and Eyes. Your X-Sheet Columns should look like this Arrange Columns: You can use the curser to arrange columns to suite your needs. Compress the columns in the panel so you can see Mouths, Eyes, Phonetics, Audio, Frames, and Notes.

7 C. Setting Notes and Flag/Reminders in the X-Sheet 1. Writing in the Notes Column: Dbl. Click on the line in the Notes Column where you want to type and enter text into the dialogue box. Press enter. You have successfully entered a notation. 2. Setting a Flag/Reminder: Notice the small empty diamond shape next to the notation text you just entered. The empty diamond indicates an unflagged note. By dbl. clicking on the diamond you will change this to a flagged note. This means that Dragonframe will open a warning window just before you would expose this frame. Like so... It s a little hard to miss. Simply click on OK and resume your shoot.